My Shadow of Mordor movie is here. If you're unfamiliar with my work, I take cutscenes and gameplay and edit them together to make a feature length movie, removing as much "video game stuff" (button prompts, HUD, saving indicators, etc) as possible. The goal is to make a movie that anybody can watch, whether they've played the game or not, or even if they've never played video games at all. I want to create an experience as close to a real hollywood movie as I can.
I highly recommend anybody who is a fan of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings & Hobbit movies to check this movie out. I've heard from some people that it doesn't exactly match the book lore, but it's close enough to be enjoyable even if you're a pretty hardcore tolkien book fan.
I decided to edit this movie in the same 2.40:1 aspect ratio as the live action Middle Earth films. Not only does this help a sense of continuity in the series, but it also helped in the editing process, as there were several elements of the UI that were impossible to remove, but very easy to edit out in the "Tilt & Scan" editing method I used. The cutscenes ended up framing quite well at 2.40:1 as well, so I personally think it looks great. Due to this editing style, very little VFX work was needed in post. A mere 17 VFX shots, compared to Assassin's Creed Unity's 243 shots. Hence why I was able to complete the movie in such a short time compared to the other. This movie took me less than a month to make!
In this particular movie, some of you may notice that I cut quite a lot. In fact I cut two entire story missions, and I think four more cutscenes on top of that, possibly more. Sometimes what works well in a game (and the cutscenes were quite good as well) just doesn't work as well in a movie. For the sake of better story flow, I had to cut some of that stuff, which would have edited together a bit more awkwardly otherwise. I think this kind of judgement is one of the things that sets me apart from other "cutscene movies" and shows that it's certainly not a "Let's Play" or "Walkthrough" as it literally skips large portions of gameplay, so it wouldn't be all that helpful to someone wanting to know how to beat the game lol.
As for what to expect in the future: I will be buying Arkham Knight on June 23, and assuming Rocksteady's standard of quality holds up for that game, it is most likely going to be my next movie. After that I hope to make an Assassin's Creed Rogue movie before AC Syndicate releases on October 23, but it's too early to guarantee that, because there are a few games I do want to play between now and then, including MGSV (and I'm still catching up to that, currently on MGS3) and the Uncharted PS4 collection.
As for whether I'll do yet another remake for my Uncharted movies... I don't know, but it likely won't be a priority. Like The Last of Us Remastered and Tomb Raider Definitive Edition, I prefer to do games I haven't done before doing remasters of movies I have already done. After I finish my Rogue movie, I will still have AC Liberation and Syndicate to do, as well as next year's Uncharted 4 and Rise of the Tomb Raider. And there may yet still be potential for some of the Metal Gear games. From what i've played so far, MGS1-3 don't seem to be great candidates for movies, due to their heavy usage of the codec. If MGS4 or any other game changes that, and have good stories, they could certainly be candidates. Another potential candidate might be Mad Max, if that game turns out any good. I loved the movie.
As always, if you like the movie, support the developers by buying the game.